Removing Negative Labels

Joel Osteen @ Lakewood Church

Walt Disney was told that he had no artistic skills, Lucille Ball was told that she wasn't a good actress...

You can't prevent negative labels, but you can remove them.

Words are like seeds, if you dwell on them too long they can take root. Wrong labels can keep you from your destiny. You can become what people say that you are and not what God says you are.

Stop ACTING like those labels are the truth.

Sometimes people make assessments based on the CURRENT situation, not based on what God created you to be.

The real battle is taking place in your mind.

You have the power to remove those negative labels.

God is not up in heaven all frantic trying to figure out how to get you to your destiny.

Psalms 139:14 KJV
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

God doesn't label the way that people label. God looks at the heart.

Isaiah 54:17 KJV
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord , and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord .

even though Samuel had anointed David as the next king his brothers still had labeled him. David had to make a decision about what labels he wanted to wear.
1 Samuel 16:11-12 KJV
And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither. And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he.
1 Samuel 17:28 KJV
And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.

Sometimes people put negative labels on people because of the pain they have experienced not because of anything that someone else did.

remove the old labels.

Genesis 35:16-18 KJV
...Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben–oni: but his father called him Benjamin.

You are not what people call you, you are what you answer to.

********Victoria Osteen*********

• You can't receive anything from the enemy, he forces it on you.
• Isaiah 59:19 KJV
  So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.
• It's my job to find the way of escape.
  1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV
  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
• Realize that God is for me, God is not against me, and I am here for such a time as this.
• You can't put your light out, you can only cover it.
• You have to guard your mind and not compare yourself to others. Fight against the forces that are causing me to shrink back.
  Judges 6:11-16 MSG
  One day the angel of God came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, whose son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, out of sight of the Midianites. The angel of God appeared to him and said, " God is with you, O mighty warrior!" Gideon replied, "With me , my master? If God is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracle-wonders our parents and grandparents told us about, telling us, 'Didn't God deliver us from Egypt?' The fact is, God has nothing to do with us—he has turned us over to Midian." But God faced him directly: "Go in this strength that is yours. Save Israel from Midian. Haven't I just sent you?" Gideon said to him, " Me , my master? How and with what could I ever save Israel? Look at me. My clan's the weakest in Manasseh and I'm the runt of the litter."  God said to him, "I'll be with you. Believe me, you'll defeat Midian as one man."
• God will finish what he started in me.
  Philippians 1:6 KJV
  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: